Selling on Facebook: Why you need a Page

Within 3 weeks of the Startup of Beautiful Bracelets I sold a Bracelet to someone I don’t know, via the Facebook Business Page I created on Day 1. One of my friends who was at University with me in KZN is now teaching in Shanghai, China. She “liked” one of the photo’s I posted with a link to the Beautiful Bracelets website. One of HER friends (whom I don’t know and have never met), who is living in Durban was curious about why she “liked” the page, clicked on it, and immediately contacted me to purchase a Beautiful Bracelet for someone’s 21st Birthday. The Beautiful Bracelet was delivered in Durban overnight, she had it the next day! So the time is over when you can think of Facebook as a “good idea” for businesses to try. With over 500 million ACTIVE users, you simply have to be there! Here are some simple steps to get it done fast.

Facebook keeps changing things, so if this is out of date by the time you read this, their “help” guide would be able to help you. These are key pointers that may help you right now:

(1) Choose a classification: Go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and from there, choose one of the following classifications that best fit your business:

• Local Business or Place
• Artist, Band, or Public Figure
• Company, Organization, or Institution
• Entertainment
• Brand or Product
• Cause or Community

These will facilitate better search results (people finding you online). Once selected, choose a category (carefully, this cannot be changed once you confirm your business name, if you make a mistake you have to delete and start over) then fill out your business name.

(2) Fill out Basic Information. Upload a photo (pre-sized to 180x180, you can use one of the photo re-sizing programs to do this, I use IrfanView but Picasa works well too. It just is quicker if the photo fits well. This could be your Company Logo if you already have one. Fill out the “About” section, 2-3 lines, a short few phrases that “sell” the company or product and give the special features of your brand, include a link to your website here.

(3) Administration: Use your Admin Panel, it’s a useful tool to manage your Page and build Audiences (potential buyers/clients/customers). You can update the basic info provided earlier in “Update Info”. It allows you to add a description, giving more details than previously given in the “About” section. “Update Info” allows you to update the basic information you’ve already given, with more details selling your product or service, include your website here too. If you are a micro business you probably won’t have too many Page Administrators (you may need to delegate people to reply to comments as you grow busier). The other options allow you to manage your notifications and add page permissions.

Build Audience: Be strategic, rather make the page look interesting with content and interactions from one or two friends before you invite many more people to join your Page. Once you get to 30+ Facebook gives you useful statistics and insight, so for a micro business this would be your first goal. You could even create an Ad to generate more users.

(4) Fill your Page with Great Content.

Cover Photo. Put your best, most appealing photo here, the dimensions should be 851X315 (its just quicker if you pre-size the photo correctly using IrfanView or Picasa or similar).

Custom Tabs. Facebook allows endless Custom Tabs (Photos, Events, Competitions, etc) but bear in mind 4 are visible, the rest are hidden until clicked on.

Posts. Use a variety of posts, content, photos, video links relevant to your customers that will have the effect of making them interested to purchase your product or service. I try to have a more subtle approach on Facebook, in my view this is a “soft sell” although I have actually had nearly 30 percent of my sales generated as a result of people seeing the products, photos and comments on Facebook! The great thing is that my Blog gives me good insight as to what people are interested in.

Monitor: It may be fantastic to have a stunning Facebook Page but certain statistics have shown that failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to 15% of your customers preferring to purchase elsewhere! Be sure to respond to comments and messages not only to let your fans know you care about them, but certainly to avoid the detrimental effects of NOT doing so!

(5) Measure yourself. By this stage, you’ve built and shared a Facebook page that accurately reflects your business. Use the “View Insights” option (lower middle of the Admin panel). This enables you to monitor what’s working, what isn’t so that you can grow and adapt your marketing efforts and improve your Facebook content and Strategy.